Time is Short: Call Upon the Lord :: By Stephen du Bord

Editor’s note: This evangelistic message is by a 26 year old writer. I believe you will agree that it expresses particularly impressive understanding for one so young.We certainly invite younger writers to join those who are more mature in delivering God’s Salvation Message and the Truth of Christ’s soon Return.

Give your life to Jesus Christ while there’s still time. Don’t put it off, or think there’s time to delay.

Tomorrow may be too late, it’s not guaranteed.

James 4:14 reminds us of the brevity of life: “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”

Isaiah 55:6-7 says, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.”

Similarly, 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “Indeed, the ‘right time’ is now. Today is the day of salvation.”

For those who haven’t yet believed, God’s whole plan of salvation has been laid out in the Bible, and the Bible says that admitting you’re a sinner, believing in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and calling upon His Name to save you will result in eternal life and reconciliation to God, all through what Jesus has done for you. You must believe and receive, it’s that simple.

To expand on the above, the path to salvation and reconciliation with God can be categorized into what is known as the “ABC’s of Salvation.”

The “A” stands for ADMIT, or ACKNOWLEDGE, that you are a sinner; a flawed, broken, imperfect human being who is not without guilt. Admit that you’ve sinned and fallen short of God’s standard of holiness and righteousness – that standard being that you are blameless and without fault (none of us is).

Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Isaiah 53:6 says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own, yet the Lord laid on him [Christ] the sins of us all.”

Who of us hasn’t lied once upon a time, either to get ahead or conceal the truth? Even one infraction in something as seemingly innocent as this is seen as wicked in the eyes of God, and separates us from Him. Charles Spurgeon said, “As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.”

If we cannot detect that we’ve screwed up big time, fallen far short of moral perfection, and that because of this, we are in need of saving, we are truly deceived. Our condition is that of a system-wide disease. We are all infected with the sin nature. We are lost without God, and to be in sin is to be separated from Him and lost forever. To admit this lost-ness, and our need to be found, is the beginning of coming to repentance.

We have all done things to others which we’ve regretted and have needed to ask forgiveness for. We also need to ask God’s forgiveness for those wrongs we’ve committed in our lives.

The Bible says in Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sin separates us from God and, if left untreated, results in the death of our souls.

The “B” in ABC stands for BELIEVE: that Jesus is Lord. Believe in His finished work on your behalf. He lived the perfect, pure, holy and blameless life that you never could and He died as a perfect sacrifice in your place. Believe that He is the Lord and Savior of your life, your soul, and your entire being.

Romans 5:6 says: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”

Galatians 4:4-5 tells us, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”

God wants to adopt us into His family, and for us to enter into His eternal Kingdom. He loves us so much, that Christ, His only Son, was sent at the appointed time to fulfill all that needed to be fulfilled for us to be reconciled to God. All we need do is trust in His completed work to save us.

Remember John 3:16? Most everyone on the face of the earth probably knows of this verse. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The free gift of God is that Jesus Christ came down to the earth at the appointed time to live a pure, holy, sinless life that we couldn’t live and to die in our place as a pure and holy sacrifice. He satisfied the penalty that we incurred with the sins we’ve committed in our lives. This was all done because “God so loved the world.” He loved us even BEFORE we were made right with Him. We didn’t need to clean up our act first and then He decided to send Jesus for our sins – no, we were still dead in our sins when Christ was sent into the world.

Romans 5:8 confirms this: “But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Being dead in our sins means that no matter how hard we try, we can’t clean up our act – we’ve already fallen short. No manner of good deeds will undo the bad deeds we’ve done. We are hopelessly lost without Christ.

Ephesians 2:45 says, “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!”

It is by God’s grace that we have been saved – this flies in the face of any other system of faith. Unlike all the religions of the world, reconciliation to God through Christ is a free gift, of grace, not of our own merit. We can’t earn our way into Heaven: “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Romans 4:25 says that “He [Jesus] was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.”

Jesus literally took our sins upon Himself and died the death we should have died, physically and spiritually. When we believe in and accept Jesus, we accept that His life and death in our stead has satisfied what was required of us by the Law, which we could never meet on our own (the Law being God’s standard of rightful living).

As in Romans 4:25 above, Christ was raised to life so that we could be justified in the eyes of God. Jesus’ resurrection is the center of the Christian faith; if Christ did not rise, all faith is futile. The Bible says as much: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14).

But Christ HAS been raised and He is longing for you to accept Him into your life!

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man [Adam], the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man [Jesus Christ]. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

Christ’s resurrection from the dead, after living His life on the earth and being crucified with all our sins on Himself, shows us that: the price has been paid! Christ’s resurrection shows us that His sacrifice was seen as sufficient for ALL TIME and for ALL SINS, since God would not have raised Him had his life not perfectly fulfilled the requirements of the Law.

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus is recorded as saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

Through Christ, we have been made right with God. This verse above is also translated as Christ having been made to be SIN ITSELF. God would NEVER have raised someone who has become sin itself to eternal life, had the sin not been first wiped completely and irrevocably clean. And Christ did just this. He took our wrongdoings, our iniquities, upon Himself, and being the only perfect, holy and blameless human being to ever live on this earth, died with our sins, washing us clean of any wrongdoing, since those wrongdoings were put to death at the Cross when He died.

And since He rose, we are assured that, in the eyes of God, the price has indeed been paid for us by Jesus Christ. Now, if only we will ADMIT that we need His sacrifice to cover our sins and BELIEVE that He paid the penalty we rightfully deserve!

This brings us to the “C” in ABC, which stands for: CALL upon the name of the Lord, or CONFESS the name of the Lord: to save you from yourself and from an eternity apart from Him.

Romans 10:9-11, 13 says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’… Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

God is the source of all good things – joy, happiness, friendship, love, warmth, purpose, contentment, comfort, and light. To reject His pardon provided for you by way of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who lived that perfect life you never could, is to say you don’t want Him or His presence. This is Hell, the separation from God’s glorious presence, and all that entails (no joy, happiness, warmth, comfort, etc). Make no mistake; your eternal destination is your own choice.

God is love. He won’t force you into His presence or to love Him, just like a man who truly loves a woman wouldn’t force her to be with him if she rejects him over and over. God seeks you out and tries to get your attention throughout your life, but if you repeatedly reject His love, He will give you up to your own desires.

C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it is opened.”

As we have seen, God is a God of unfailing, boundless, unmatched Love and Mercy. But God is also a God of Justice. And that means that evil and wickedness cannot go unpunished. “I, the LORD, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty” (Isaiah 13:11).

Not only are our lives as short as the morning fog, but the lifespan of this world is also running short. The Bible reveals to us that, indeed a time of judgment is coming on the world: “Look! The LORD is coming from heaven to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will no longer hide those who have been killed. They will be brought out for all to see” (Isaiah 26:21).

God reveals to us in the Bible that there are signs that will tell us when we are near the end of this world, and that the hour of judgment is near. And guess what? Those signs are present in our world, today.

If you haven’t first read the linked article above before continuing, please do so now – it is incredibly timely and important in understanding the urgency of giving your life to Jesus Christ today, rather than tomorrow.

But for those who receive Christ, God’s one and only son, you have been freed from God’s punishment and judgment forever, for Jesus Christ has taken that punishment and judgment upon Himself!

Again, in Romans 5:8 we are told: “But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

However, if you do not receive Him, you must pay the price yourself. Because you cannot ever meet the requirements in order to pay for the wrongs you’ve committed, you will be incarcerated forever (Hell), with no one to bail you out. Choose Christ so that you need not meet this fate. He has already paid the price so that you may live in boundless, joyful freedom forever in the presence of the Source of all Good Things!

God is absolutely Holy. He cannot allow those who are unholy and unclean to enter into His Kingdom. “But nothing unclean will ever enter it [the Kingdom of God], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27).

To have your name written in the Lamb’s book of life, you must repent and receive Jesus Christ. “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Again, time is very short.

Have you ever heard of the Second Coming of Jesus? You will have read about it already in the article linked above. Most people have heard about Jesus returning, though they mock and scoff at the notion. But know this, Jesus is coming back, and He’s coming back soon. “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done” (Revelation 22:12).

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen” (Revelation 1:7).

As you can see by now, time is so very short for all of us – personally and globally. Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

In closing, I’d like to share two of the verses from the beginning once more.

“Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6-7).

“Indeed, the ‘right time’ is now. Today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Life is but a breath in the wind – today could be your last day on Earth. Where will you find yourself if you entered into eternity tomorrow? Choose God. Choose repentance. Choose the forgiveness that is offered to you freely. Choose Christ while there’s still time.